News
SpaceX targeting five East Coast Falcon launches in first month of 2022
In a new statement focused on Cape Canaveral’s “exceptionally busy” 2022 schedule, a senior US Space Force (formerly Air Force) official has implied that SpaceX is already targeting five East Coast launches in the first month of the new year.
While the director didn’t specifically state who is launching, they did confirm that “seven total launches” are scheduled out of Cape Canaveral facilities (including NASA’s Kennedy Space Center) in January 2022 – five to “polar” orbits and two to more traditional semi-equatorial inclinations. While most of the “polar” launches referred to are likely not actually polar under the definition of launching satellites that will more or less orbit the Earth’s poles, the phrase still all but guarantees that five of those planned launches are Falcon 9 rockets.
The news cuts both ways, though, as it also strongly implies that SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy launch in more than two and a half years will have to wait until February 2022 at the earliest.
Of the seven launches the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) operations director says are targeted for January 2022, public schedules indicate with confidence that two are non-SpaceX. A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket appears to remain on track to launch the Space Force’s USSF-8 mission – a pair of geostationary surveillance satellites for the US military – no earlier than January 21st. Additionally, while delays are likely, startup Astra revealed plans last month to attempt its first Cape Canaveral ‘Rocket 3’ launch in January 2022.
Beyond those two missions, there is no evidence of other non-SpaceX launches planned this month, which implies that SpaceX is responsible for all five other missions. Delays are obviously possible but SpaceX has already repeatedly demonstrated the ability to complete four East Coast launches in less than a month.
Up first, SpaceX is scheduled to start another potentially record-breaking year of launches with its Starlink 4-5 mission, which is on track to lift off no earlier than (NET) 4:49 pm EST (21:49 UTC) on Thursday, January 6th. NET 10:25 am EST (15:25 UTC), January 13th, another Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch SpaceX’s third dedicated rideshare mission (Transporter-3), sending another batch of several dozen small satellites to orbit. SpaceX’s last confirmed launch of the month is Italy’s CSG-2 Earth observation satellite, which is scheduled to fly on another Falcon 9 rocket as early as late January. Two are headed to actual semi-polar orbits, while Starlink 4-5 is targeting a 53.2-degree orbital inclination – far from polar but still requiring Falcon 9 to launch to the southeast.
That leaves room for two more Starlink launches to hit the USSF’s estimate five “polar” missions – if SpaceX can manage the feat. Based on SpaceX’s record LC-40 and LC-39A turnaround times, beginning launches on January 6th ramps up the difficulty but doesn’t make five launches impossible. Assuming SpaceX can repeatedly turn both LC-40 and LC-39A around in ~10 days, SpaceX could theoretically launch Starlink 4-5 on 1/6 (39A), Transporter-3 on 1/13 (LC-40), Starlink x-x on 1/16 (39A), CSG-2 on 1/23 (LC-40), and Starlink x-x on 1/26. Technically, CSG-2 could launch anytime after Jan 22nd or 23rd and the third hypothetical Starlink mission could also tolerate up to five days of delays before it would slip into February.
Finally, depending on how strong Starlink V1.5 production is, SpaceX’s West Coast Vandenberg facilities could technically support one launch this month. It’s also possible that SpaceX will hold off on internal missions to ensure pad readiness for the US military’s NROL-87 Falcon 9 launch – scheduled NET February 2nd, 2022 as of four months ago.
SpaceX has selected Qualcomm Technologies to supply core infrastructure for Starlink Mobile’s planned nationwide terrestrial 5G network in the United States.
Announced on November 4, the multi-year agreement covers radios, baseband units, and commercial-grade Layer 1 software based on Qualcomm’s Dragonwing Cellular Infrastructure platforms, specifically the QRU100 and QDU100:
🚀 SpaceX has picked Qualcomm to supply radios, baseband units and Layer 1 software for Starlink Mobile’s nationwide terrestrial 5G network.
Deployment across tens of thousands of U.S. cell sites starts in 2027. Qualcomm calls it its biggest 5G deal yet. https://t.co/YKLRakuJjB
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 4, 2026
These will power Massive MIMO radio units featuring 64 transmit and 64 receive paths (64T64R), designed to boost coverage, capacity, and spectral efficiency at scale. Qualcomm has described the pact as its largest 5G deal to date, with deployment across tens of thousands of U.S. cell sites scheduled to begin in 2027.
The terrestrial build-out is meant to complement, not replace, Starlink’s satellite direct-to-cell capabilities. SpaceX has assembled substantial spectrum holdings for this purpose: roughly 65 MHz of mid-band frequencies acquired from EchoStar (including AWS-4 and related bands) and up to 14 MHz of low-band 800 MHz spectrum from Grain Management.
The low-band airwaves improve indoor penetration and range, while mid-band supports higher capacity. SpaceX executives, including President Gwynne Shotwell, have outlined a hybrid architecture in which satellites eliminate outdoor dead zones and terrestrial nodes add capacity where demand is highest.
Earlier comments suggested small cells or femtocells potentially co-located with existing Starlink user terminals on roofs, though later filings also reference more conventional antennas on towers and structures.
The big picture is SpaceX’s bid to become a full-fledged U.S. mobile carrier rather than a satellite partner or dead-zone filler. AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile together generate hundreds of billions in annual wireless revenue; Shotwell has said SpaceX expects to win customers by offering superior coverage, including during disasters, through seamless satellite-terrestrial handoff.
Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile are trying to shut Starlink out before FCC vote
Starlink already represents a major share of SpaceX’s revenue and profit following the company’s 2026 IPO. By vertically integrating spectrum, satellite manufacturing, launch capacity, and now ground radio equipment, SpaceX aims to control more of the connectivity stack.
Qualcomm’s involvement also positions the network for future evolution toward AI-native 6G infrastructure, with energy-efficient processing that could improve deployment economics.
Challenges remain: spectrum depth still lags the Big Three, capital costs for tens of thousands of sites will be substantial, and regulatory approvals continue, but the Qualcomm deal marks a concrete step from spectrum accumulation toward operational network build-out.
In short, the partnership accelerates Starlink Mobile’s shift from orbital broadband specialist to hybrid mobile competitor, testing whether a space-based company can reshape terrestrial wireless economics and coverage in the world’s largest market.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s Grok Bot is picking up the phone now, and the first calls are wild
Elon Musk wants Grok Bot users making phone calls, and one Comcast call saved $500.
Elon Musk is pushing Grok Bot users toward a feature that, until this week, few of them could actually use. “Try asking Grok @Bot to make calls!” Musk wrote on X Tuesday afternoon, quoting a demo from Sawyer Merritt that included audio from a live call.
Musk first announced calling on October 25, writing that the agent could “call someone or a business for you, make a request on your behalf, take notes on the response and send you a note summarizing the conversation.” There were no release notes at the time, and the feature only appeared in preview builds. That changed on Tuesday, when creator Peter Yang said all Grok Bot users should now be able to call US businesses. Musk reposted his demo.
Try asking Grok @Bot to make calls! — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 3, 2026
Yang’s call shows how far the feature goes. In his video, his bot dialed Comcast, worked through the phone menu, deflected small talk about the weather by saying it does not “have eyes on the sky,” turned down three upsells and used a cheaper fiber offer from competitor Sonic as leverage. His bill dropped from $84 to $45 per month on a faster plan, a savings of nearly $500 a year. The call ran about 25 minutes, and the bot paused to get Yang’s approval before accepting the final terms.
Merritt described what the user sees: a live transcript runs during the call, and when the business asks for something the bot does not know, an answer box pops up in the chat. The user types a reply and Grok relays it to the person on the line. Other users posted results Tuesday, including a $100 gift card recovered from Verizon Fios after a 51 minute call and a same day pediatric appointment, which Musk also shared. Not every call worked. One user said a rep refused to cancel a subscription once it was clear an AI was on the phone.
Grok @Bot can now call someone or a business for you, make a request on your behalf, take notes on the response and send you a note summarizing the conversation! — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 25, 2026
The Grok Bot terms require every call to identify itself as a virtual assistant calling on the user’s behalf and warn that calls may be recorded. Marketing, mass calling and impersonation are prohibited, and calling currently works only with US numbers.
The timing stands out. Days ago, users began hitting their weekly limits early, and Musk said the cost of serving Grok Bot was “unsustainably high relative to revenue,” as Teslarati reported. A call that spends most of its 25 or 50 minutes on hold is the kind of long running task that eats into usage, and SpaceXSI has not said how calls count against the weekly pool. Grok Bot is included from the $30 Premium tier of The X Subscription upward.
For Tesla owners, the agent has been in their cars since September 22 and is enabled across every Cybercab and Model Y Robotaxi. Musk has already pitched it for phone chores like scrubbing your number from spam call lists. Neither Tesla nor SpaceXSI has confirmed whether a bot can place one of these calls on request from inside the vehicle.
Tesla Full Self-Driving, which is now referred to in Europe as “Tesla Assisted Driving” (TAD), is getting hit with a handful of new changes at the hands of the Netherlands’ vehicle authority, the RDW (Rijksdienst voor het Wegverkeer).
On 3 November, the RDW announced that it has assessed and approved a set of changes to Tesla’s FSD Supervised driver-assistance system. The updates introduce the official European name TAD and impose stricter controls on the system’s speed behaviour.
The new name will appear on the in-car display, in the owner’s manual, and in all other driver-facing information. The change applies to Tesla models equipped with Tesla Assisted Driving and hardware version 4.0 (HW4) or later.
Importantly, the RDW stressed that the name change does not alter the system’s fundamental operation: it remains a supervised driver-assistance feature that supports the driver in performing driving tasks. The driver stays fully responsible for controlling the vehicle at all times.
Beyond the rebranding, the most significant functional adjustments concern speed settings. Drivers will still be able to set a speed margin, a percentage by which the system may exceed the applicable speed limit when necessary for safety or traffic flow. However, the maximum allowable margin has been reduced from +50% to a maximum of +10%.
In addition, every time the vehicle is started, the speed-margin setting will default to 0% deviation, and other speed-related functions will be disabled by default. These changes will be delivered through an over-the-air (OTA) software update from Tesla.
Tesla requested the RDW’s review of these “minor changes.” After evaluating how the modifications were implemented and how the system behaves, the authority found no adverse or unintended effects on the system’s operation or the vehicle’s driving behaviour. Consequently, the existing type approval remains valid under the same conditions and for the same use; no amendment or extension of the approval is required.
The RDW has informed the nine EU member states that have already accepted its type approval—Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia and Czechia—about the updates. Broader EU-wide approval is still under discussion within the European Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles (TCMV). Those proceedings remain confidential, and the RDW has declined to comment on them.
The approved changes align with earlier discussions involving German authorities, which had advocated both for clearer naming to avoid misleading drivers and for a tighter speed offset.
By formally incorporating these adjustments while leaving the core type approval intact, the RDW has cleared the way for Tesla to roll out the updated TAD software via OTA to eligible vehicles in the Netherlands and the other countries that recognise the Dutch approval. The system continues to function strictly as supervised driver assistance, with the human driver remaining the responsible party.
SpaceX moves to challenge AT&T, Verizon with Qualcomm-powered 5G
Elon Musk’s Grok Bot is picking up the phone now, and the first calls are wild
